Council to meet with ESB over power outages in Coosan

Westmeath County Council has requested a meeting with the ESB relating to the poor standard of power supply provided by the electricity company in the Coosan area.

Speaking at a recent meeting of the Athlone-Moate Municipal District of Westmeath County Council, Cllr Aengus O'Rourke raised the issue and said that Coosan, in particular, stood out to him as an area that hasn't been fully served by electrical supply and by the ESB.

The Fianna Fáil councillor added that one person who observes the power outages in the area very carefully remarked to him that they had 17 power outages in 2023 and on nine occasions the contents of their freezer had been impacted.

“In an area as built up as Coosan with hundreds and hundreds of residents, school, businesses and so on, it’s not good enough in this day and age,” said Cllr O'Rourke.

He said that there is “huge frustration” and that the local joke is that if a bird lands on a cable in Coosan the lights go out.

Cllr O'Rourke highlighted that there are also hundreds of houses on the way for the area and that if the infrastructure isn’t fit for purpose today “it certainly isn’t fit for purpose” tomorrow or next year.

Cllr O'Rourke said that it was more important than ever that the council talk to the ESB and added that there were glaring issues in Coosan both from a public lighting point of view and from a supply point of view

Cllr John Dolan said that he supported the motion “wholeheartedly.”

“It’s a major issue and I think the solution is to get them (ESB) in here. We need power for every house that’s going in there so we need to hear what they’re going to do.”

Cllr Frankie Keena also supported the motion and said that the council needs to look at how it is going to address the matter.

He added that power outages weren't just happening in Coosan and that schools in Moate had closed recently due to this.

“There could be a major investment in infrastructure to try and address this within the power stations.”

Cllr O’Rourke concluded that if the members had an opportunity to meet with the ESB face to face they would be able to express the frustration that they've received from locals and that he would appreciate if the meeting was expedited.

District Engineer Denis Sloyan said that the transportation section has written to the ESB requesting a meeting around various issues and he highlighted that a number of additional items that came up at the meeting would also be raised and that the members could request a meeting with the ESB if they wished.

The ESB responded with the following statement: "ESB Networks can confirm that it is engaging closely with Westmeath County Council in relation to resolving issues around ongoing power outages in the Coosan area."

The Coosan outages have also been raised with ESB by Deputy Robert Troy.